It will cover site preparation and design.
Frederick, Md (KM) A $1-million state grant has been awarded to the City of Frederick for the proposed downtown hotel and conference center. The funds from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development will be used for site development and design. “We’re delighted to have gotten this grant to allow to us to work with the developer to continue moving this project forward to construction,” :says Richard Griffin, the Director of the Economic Development Department for the City of Frederick.
The hotel and conference center is planned for the site of the former Frederick News-Post building on East Patrick Street. It’s expected to have 207 rooms, and 21,000 square feet of meeting space and below grade parking. Griffin says it’s expected to be the anchor of Carroll Creek.
He says local governments and the business community have been pushing for this facility for quite some time. “It’s a long time economic development project that the city, the county, the Chamber, our Tourism Council and others have all wanted and needed for a long time,”: says Griffin “Our major employers around the community are telling us how important it is.”
Right now, the project has received approval from the Historic Preservation Commission, and Griffin says it needs site plan approval before construction can begin. He says design and construction of urban hotels are much different than those along the highways. They have be “designed literally every brick and every step of the way. It has go through the Historic Preservation Commission and the Planning Commission,” says Griffin. “And, of course, constructed with the finest materials in the highest regard for making sure it’s harmonious with the rest of town.”
In November, Governor Wes Moore visited the site for the downtown hotel and conference center. Griffin was asked if this visit had anything to do with the City receiving this grant. “The Mayor has been working very closely with the state administration, and has been seeking support from and looking for advice and technical support from all sectors of the state including the Department of Housing and Community Development which provided this grant.”
Plamondon Hospitality Partners is the developer for this project, and will operate it once it’s completed. Supporters of the downtown hotel and conference center have said if this project fails, it will cost the developers, not the city’s taxpayers.
“Thai project brings a lot of economic benefits. Some of which include over 200 industry-leading jobs in terms of wages and benefits,” Griffin says. “It also is an adaptive reuse of a historic building and does historic preservation.”
By Kevin McManus